Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a display system, and in particular, it relates to a display system employing a signal adapter to enable turning on and off the display panel to achieve energy conservation.
Description of Related Art
With the development of multimedia technologies, information such as text, images, graphics, audio and video information is transmitted to display devices for display to viewers. A commonly used multimedia data transmission technology is High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). HDMI is an all-digital video and audio transmission interface, which uses one cable to simultaneously transmit uncompressed audio and video data. This technology simplifies the cabling of the system and reduces installation complexity. In transmission, HDMI uses a TMDS (Transition-Minimized Differential Signaling) channel to encode video and audio data into packets, uses a DDC (Display Data Channel) channel to obtain transmission and reception capacity information of the devices, uses an CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) channel to achieve control and detection of the devices, uses a power (e.g. +5V) and GND (ground) lines to supply power, and uses the Hot Plug Detect lines to notify the source device whether the display device is connected. If it is connected, the communication sequence will start, and the source device will read the information of the receiving device via the DDC channel, and provide information regarding itself via the CEC channel, to obtain the basal state information of the receiving device, such as power supply status. HDMI is widely used in systems including computers, televisions, etc.
With the development of display devices, traditional CRTs are replaced by flat panel displays, such as LCD and plasma display devices. Flat panel displays have light weights and compact sizes. With the development in multimedia data transmission and display devices, traditional ways of disseminating information are being replaced by multimedia display systems. Multimedia display systems are now widely used in public places, such as electronic information display, billboards and other display panels.
In multimedia display systems in public places, in addition to video and audio, the display devices often have touch panel functions for users to interact with the display devices. The more function a multimedia display device provides, the more energy it consumes. Multimedia display devices in public places typically will continuously display information in order to attract viewers. However, when the viewers are few, the continuous display of the multimedia display devices can be ineffective and wasteful of energy.